The police want the editor to reveal the source of the story

The Kenyan authorities had come under increasing pressure after David Makali from the Sunday Standard was detained on Monday.

In a magistrate's court packed with journalists, he was charged, along with detective John Kiptorus Chemweno, with stealing a videotaped statement to the police.

On Tuesday, 58 MPs called for Mr Makali's unconditional release.

He was released on bail.

Mr Makali was arrested after the newspaper ran excerpts from a police document apparently containing the confessions of the alleged killers of a senior constitutional review commission official, Crispin Mbai.

"The arrests are an attempt by the government to intimidate and blackmail the press against their constitutional right of free access to information," the MPs said.

Freedom of the press has limits... the work of the police has been compromised by the leakage Chris Murangaru National Security Minister

The New York-based Committee to protect journalists has also called for Mr Makali's release, describing his continued detention as an "unsettling development".

The committee recalled that President Mwai Kibaki promised to support press freedom during the race leading up to the December 2002 elections.

'Unsettling development'

But National Security Minister Chris Murangaru insists that the report had hindered police investigations into the killing.

"Freedom of the press has limits... the work of the police has been compromised by the leakage," he said.

The Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) has said the detention of Mr Makali smacked of the intolerance of free expression seen under former president Daniel arap Moi.

"The KUJ is very surprised, indeed shocked, that although the government was elected on a platform of reforms, including the freedom of the press, it is reneging on all these," said the KUJ secretary general Ezekiel Mutua.

'Political assassination'

Mr Makali, his deputy Kwamchetsi Makokha and the managing director of the East African Standard Tom Mshindi were arrested on Monday by officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

But Mr Mshindi and Mr Makokha were released on Tuesday.

The Sunday Standard published a detailed police interview with the alleged killers of Crispin Mbai, who headed a committee on devolution of power in the national constitutional review conference.

Police want them to reveal the source of their story.